


i'm loving what you got

by asymmetric



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: M/M, featuring the nashville stage kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-23
Packaged: 2018-02-14 09:37:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2186778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asymmetric/pseuds/asymmetric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael accidentally (sort of) kisses Calum in Nashville and Calum realizes a few things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'm loving what you got

**Author's Note:**

> so the accidental nashville kiss is a real thing that really happened like yesterday and it destroyed me so i wrote this
> 
> title is the line from don't stop that michael was singing when his mouth bumped calum's :)

It happened in the space of about two seconds.

One second Calum was just doing his thing, singing his bit in "Don't Stop", swallowed up by sound on all sides, music and cheers and his own voice magnified a hundred times, and then the next second there was Michael. He felt him almost before he saw him; there was a blur at his side, an advancing shape looming up on the right, and then Michael was leaning in fast, bright and wild-eyed, already singing, "I'm loving--"

He'd leaned in too far: collision was inevitable. Michael was so close that Calum registered his face only in impressions of colour and shape, in the sweep of dark eyelashes, the pale cut of his cheek, the shock of the whites of his wide-stretched eyes as he realized what was going to happen just as Calum did. Calum couldn't move in time, and the corner of Michael's mouth smeared up against Calum's, lips catching and dragging for just a split second.

Heat flared up Calum's face and he pulled his head back, away from the mic, letting Michael finish the line. The right side of his mouth felt weird and warm and he ducked his head to his chest. Michael was still right there beside him, and Calum could hear his voice shaking with laughter and as soon as Calum glanced up and met his eye, he couldn't help it; the smile burst huge and incredulous across his face.

Michael had basically kissed him in front of 70000 people; Calum's life was officially ridiculous. Michael was grinning back, and then he was moving away, letting Calum get to the mic. Calum stepped up, sang one word, and then dissolved into laughter. This was ridiculous. He and Michael were ridiculous. Happiness sat swollen in his body, and he didn't even know why it was so funny, why he was so happy over being embarrassed in front of a stadium of people. He wanted to catch Michael's eye again and laugh with him, wanted to hit at him or shove him, do something with the weird adrenaline surging through his body.

But Michael was back on the other side of the stage, and so Calum just tuned back into the song, playing his heart out, Michael's kiss sitting snug in the corner of his mouth.

When they tumbled off the stage at the end of their set, Michael made a beeline for Calum and Calum opened his arms to the sweaty slam of his body, sending the two of them staggering. Michael was laughing breathlessly into his neck and Calum dug his fingers into Michael's side and thought about never letting go.

"I can't believe," Michael gasped. "You taste like strawberries, did you know that?"

"I do not, you asshole," said Calum. So they were talking about it then. "I taste like manly, manly man."

"Lies," Michael said. He shoved his way out of Calum's grip and danced on ahead down the backstage hallway, spinning around to make stupid faces at Calum again and again. He backed into Luke accidentally and they got into a giggling slap fight. Calum just watched, his face hurting from his own fondness.

"Why is Michael talking about tasting you?" Ashton said, coming up beside Calum. Calum hadn't known he was close enough to hear them. "Cannibalism?"

"No!" Calum laughed. "He kissed me onstage--tried to sing in my mic and accidentally kissed me."

It was easy to say, but looking at the expression on Ashton's face made him think that maybe it should have been harder for him, more weird. He felt embarrassed then, with Ashton staring at him like what he'd just said was a bigger deal than he'd thought.

Ashton broke and gave a weak chuckle.

"Kissed you?" he said. "Like, on the mouth?"

"No," Calum said. "On the dick. Of course on the mouth." But he was blushing now, and his nonchalant tone was proving absolutely nothing to anyone.

"Hmmm," Ashton said thoughtfully. "You'd think he'd already know what you taste like, considering the fact that you guys make out every time we're drunk."

"Not every time," Calum protested. Surely it had only been like twice, and everyone knew it didn't count if you were drunk. So what if he'd only been tipsy and still remembered it in the morning? Kissing Michael always seemed like a good idea while drunk.

"It's been like six times in a row," Ashton said. "And that's just the times I've seen. But whatever, you guys can do what you want. Kiss drunk. Kiss onstage if that's what revs your motor. Kiss sober. Get married. Adopt some kids. Live together in happy gay matrimony for sixty odd years before dying and having graves next to each other. Whatever you want."

"You're planning our graves?" Calum said. Ashton was one weird dude sometimes.

"Of course that's the only part you hear!" Ashton laughed, throwing his hands up in the air. "Listen, Cal, I'm going to ask you something: do you like kissing Michael?"

Calum shrugged. They both knew it was a yes, but hey, Michael was a good kisser. Michael had an objectively nice mouth. These were just facts, they didn't mean anything.

"Do you love Michael?"

"Obviously I do, he's Michael, he's my best friend."

"Yeah," Ashton said. "But, like, would you be up for it if he wanted to kiss all the time and hold hands and shit?"

Calum squirmed.

"He's Michael," he repeated stupidly, because he couldn't think of any other way to say "of course I would, of course I love him in every way I can".

Ashton nodded.

"Then maybe you should tell him that."

Calum stared at the ground. He couldn't feel the place where Michael had kissed him anymore and he wondered what it would be like to get a new kiss every time the imprint of the last one had faded from his mind and his skin.

"You guys are so slow!" Michael yelled. Calum looked up to see him smirking at them from down the hallway.

"We're coming, grumpy pants," he yelled back, and Michael grinned and Calum thought that maybe Ashton was occasionally right about things.

That night, Calum went to the tour bus ten minutes after Michael had said he was going to turn in early, his heart hammering in his throat. It was quiet, and empty, and he walked down the hallway between the bunks over to Michael's and slowly pulled the curtain back.

Michael's fluffy head poked out, almost head-butting Calum.

"Whaaaat?" he whined. "I meant it, I wanna go to slee--"

Calum kissed him.

Michael didn't even have a moment of shock; he melted under Calum's touch like he'd been waiting for it, pressing into it all soft and sure. It was better than a half kiss onstage, better than being drunk and sloppy, and Calum felt like he could lift off the ground and float away on this feeling of happiness.

It wasn't a very long kiss, because both of them started smiling too hard for it to work anymore, their teeth clacking together. Michael licked huge and exaggerated over Calum's teeth and Calum ducked back with a giggle and an "urgh, gross!"

Michael's eyes fluttered open, and Calum just stared at him, realizing that they didn't need to say anything about this, that they were on the same page, that maybe they'd been there for a while, and just forgot that if they kept turning the pages, the story could get even better.

"Strawberry," Michael said, after a long minute of them doing nothing but beaming sickeningly at each other.

Calum laughed.

"Fuck you."

"Okay," Michael said, and he reached down to help Calum clamber up into his bunk. "But only if you're gentle."


End file.
